Automatic guide device for sewing machine or machine for assembling two or more superposed elements

ABSTRACT

The disclosure is of a device permitting the automatic guidance of two or more workpiece elements with different edge profiles being passed through and joined together in a sewing or welding machine, the device comprising two or more lateral guide pieces and one or more intermediate plates disposed between an upper plate and a base plate.

United States Patent Heiler et a].

Dec. 9, 1975 AUTOMATIC GUIDE DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINE OR MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING TWO OR MORE SUPERPOSED ELEMENTS Inventors: Wolfgang Heiler, Soufflenheim,

Bas-Rhin; Rudolf Muller, Sessenheim, Bas-Rhin; Jean-Jacques Becker, Bischheim, Bas-Rhin, all of France Filed: Dec. 21, 1973 Appl. No.: 427,265

Related US. Application Data Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 254,753, May. 18, 1972, Pat. No. 3,814,039.

Foreign Application Priority Data May 27, 1972 Germany 2225942 US. Cl. 112/153 Int. Cl. DOSB 35/10 Field of Search 1. 112/153, 136, 50, 137-152, 112/257, 260, 121.24, 212, 205, 215, 216

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,054,367 9/1962 Loiselle ..1 112/152 3,782,310 1/1974 Stockel 3,794,230 2/1974 Byran et a1. 112/153 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 3,495 12/1971 United Kingdom 112/153 Primary ExaminerWerner H. Schroeder Assistant Examiner-Peter Nerbun Attorney, Agent, or FirmYoung & Thompson 57 ABSTRACT The disclosure is of a device permitting the automatic guidance of two or more workpiece elements with different edge profiles being passed through and joined together in a sewing or welding machine, the device comprising two or more lateral guide pieces and one or more intermediate plates disposed between an upper plate and a base plate.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures US. Patent Dec. 9 1975 AUTOMATIC GUIDE DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINE OR MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING TWO OR MORE SUPERPOSED ELEMENTS This application is a continuation-in-part of our copending application Ser. No. 254,753, filed May 18, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,039.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is an improvement in or modification of the invention disclosed in our earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,196, which relates to a guide device which, on being mounted upon a sewing machine or upon any other machine in which a web or sheet material passes under a tool permits an automatic following of the profile of the cut edge of the material passing through the machine without external guidance of the material to be worked.

For this purpose the device disclosed in the said earlier specification is constituted by an upper plate and a base plate and a lateral guide piece equipped with a lug serving for the fixing of the device to the machine, this lateral guide piece being fixed between the two plates namely the upper plate and the base plate.

This device, which can be used equally well for the joining of two or more superposed elements having similar edge profiles, is however not convenient in a case where these elements have edge profiles differing one from another.

For the joining edge to edge of the two elements of non-identical curves recourse is generally made to a manual operation and to the fixing of the two edges by sharp pointed folds.

In order to mitigate these disadvantages and to reduce the time necessary for such work, and moreover improve the quality, the present invention has as one object to provide a guide device which allows the joining of two or more elements, of textile fabric or analogous sheet material, presenting edge profiles which are not similar.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In conformity with the present invention the device primarily comprises an upper plate and an intermediate plate and a base plate, these upper and base plates each being separated respectively from the intermediate plate by a lateral guide piece.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEWS IN THE DRAWINGS The following description relates to a form of embodiment of the device which is the subject of the present invention given by way of non-limitative example and described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a guide device comprising a subcombination of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the guide device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a sewing machine according to the present invention, schematically illustrated, to show the relationship of the sewing machine and the guide device and the fabric pieces; and

FIG. 4 is a view in elevation of the machine of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Thus, as represented in the drawings, the guide device is constituted by an upper plate 1, preferably transparent, a lateral guide piece 2, an intermediate plate 3, a lateral guide piece 4, identical with the piece 2, and a base plate 5, all these components being joined together by means of screws or rivets 7 or analogous fastening elements.

The device is fixed in proximity with the lateral face of the presser foot of the sewing machine as shown, for example in FIGS. 3 and 4, and for this purpose may comprise either a fixing lug or holes to allow fixing.

The plates 1 and 3 and 5, which can be of a size adapted to the workpiece elements to be joined, are adapted in their portions situated near to the pressure foot or to the tool in a manner such that their extent may be equal to that of the lateral guide pieces 2 and 4.

These lateral guide pieces, of which the thickness is variable as a function of these of the workpiece elements, have identical profiles of curvature.

With a view to facilitating the introduction of the workpiece elements to be joined between the upper plate and the intermediate plate on the one hand, and on the other hand between the base plate and the intermediate plate, the upper plate 1 comprises on its entry edge a rounding or chamfer 1 and the base plate 5 comprises a margin 5 bent down towards the machine base plate 6.

When applied to a sewing machine the device which is the subject of the invention functions in the following manner:

By the influence of the transportation of the workpiece material, which is effected upon the longitudinal edge of the first thickness of the cut material, there is produced a lateral movement of the material against the first lateral guide piece 2, this by reason of the retardation resulting from the friction of the edge opposed to the stitching.

The same operation occurs for the second thickness of textile fabric which is separated from the first by the intermediate plate 3.

The upper plate 1 and likewise the intermediate plate 3 oppose an upward escape or folding of the two thicknesses of material to be joined. Due to this, the textile fabrics are guided of necessity and in accordance with the edge profiles below the presser foot.

As with the device disclosed in the said earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3 ,817,196, the elements of textile fabric, especially of large dimensions, may glide upon a cushion of air obtained by means of piercings or openings in the plate of the machine and connected to a source of compressed air (not shown).

According to a further feature of the invention it is provided that one of the lateral guide pieces 2 or 4 may be displaceable perpendicularly to the direction of stitching by means of any suitable mechanical or hydraulic or pneumatic arrangement (not shown).

The device which is the subject of the present invention is for application in particular to automatic machines for long stitched seams such as automatic stitchers or high frequency automatic welding machines.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the overall apparatus of the present invention, comprising a sewing machine head 8 superposed above the base plate 6. Head 8 carries the usual vertically reciprocable needle 9 and the conventional foot 10. Foot 10 cooperates in a conventional manner with a lower material moving means 11 executing a quadrangular movement, this material moving means 1 1 having teeth 12 only on the right-hand side of the stitching line, as can be seen from FIG. 3. Accord ingly, the force of the feeding mechanism 10, 12 is effective essentially along the marginal zone of the two fabric layers 13, 14 to be joined,'which zone is located to the right of the stitching site; the fabric layers, in turn, can have edge configurations which are different from one another. As a result, the fabric in the vicinity of foot and preceding foot 10 relative to the stitching direction 15, tends to be swung counterclockwise as seen in FIG. 3, until the edges of the layers 13, 14 are urged against their respective guide pieces 2 and 4.

The guide pieces 2 and 4, in turn, have guide edges l7ithat contact the fabric edges, the edges 17 of the guide pieces 2 and 4 being inclined at an acute angle to stitching direction 15. These guide edges of guide pieces 2 and 4 are preferably convex as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 and extend from an entry end relative to the direction of fabric movement which is remote from foot 4, to an exit end relative to the direction of the movement of the fabric edges, which exit end is closely adjacent foot 4 and is disposed closely adjacent line of stitching l6.

wrinkling or bunching of the material within the guide device is prevented by spacing the plates 1, 3 and 5 sufficiently close together that there is no room for fabric wrinkles to form between them.

It will be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3 that the guide device is L-shaped when viewed from above and that the needle 9 and fabric moving means 10-12 are disposed in a recess 18 at the intersection of the legs of the L.

What is claimed is:

1. In a sewing machine having a base plate and a head carrying a vertically reciprocable needle and fabric feeding teeth adjacent the needle for moving superposed layers of fabric beneath the needle to form in the superposed layers of fabric an edge seam comprising a line of stitching extending in a stitching direction; the improvement comprising a guiding device mounted on the sewing machine above the base plate, said guiding device comprising a plurality of superposed plates with guide pieces between said plates, said guide pieces having edges that guidingly contact the edges of the superposed layers of fabric with a said guide plate separating adjacent layers of fabric, said edges of said guide pieces extending toward said needle at an acute angle to said line of stitching, and said fabric feeding teeth being disposed only on the same side of said line of stitching as said guide pieces thereby to exert a torque on the fabric to swing the fabric in a direction to urge said edges of the fabric against said edges of said guide pieces.

2. A sewing machine as claimed in claim 1, said guide edges being convex toward said direction of stitching.

3. A sewing machine as claimed in claim 1, said guide plates being L-shaped and having a recess at the intersection of the legs of the L, said needle and moving means being disposed in said recess when viewed from above. 

1. In a sewing machine having a base plate and a head carrying a vertically reciprocable needle and fabric feeding teeth adjacent the needle for moving superposed layers of fabric beneath the needle to form in the superposed layers of fabric an edge seam comprising a line of stitching extending in a stitching direction; the improvement comprising a guiding device mounted on the sewing machine above the base plate, said guiding device comprising a plurality of superposed plates with guide pieces between said plates, said guide pieces having edges that guidingly contact the edges of the superposed layers of fabric with a said guide plate separating adjacent layers of fabric, said edges of said guide pieces extending toward said needle at an acute angle to said line of stitching, and said fabric feeding teeth being disposed only on the same side of said line of stitching as said guide pieces thereby to exert a torque on the fabric to swing the fabric in a direction to urge said edges of the fabric against said edges of said guide pieces.
 2. A sewing machine as claimed in claim 1, said guide edges being convex toward said direction of stitching.
 3. A sewing machine as claimed in claim 1, said guide plates being L-shaped and having a recess at the intersection of the legs of the L, said needle and moving means being disposed in said recess when viewed from above. 